1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a scanner, a facsimile, a multifunction machine, and a compound machine; an information processing method; and a recording medium such as an SD card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent year, multifunction machines and compound machines having copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile functions have been available in the market. The multifunction machines and the compound machines can print images on printing paper when used as copiers or printers, scan images from original documents when used as copiers or scanners, and send and receive images to and from other communication apparatuses via telephone lines when used as facsimiles.
Patent Document 1 discloses an invention related to an image forming apparatus having copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile functions. The image forming apparatus is provided with software corresponding to applications as well as software corresponding to platforms. The image forming apparatus is also provided with application program interfaces and engine interfaces.
<Patent Document 1> Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-084383
Image forming devices and applications for the image forming apparatuses are available in various models and versions. Due to such variety of models and versions, a certain version of an application that works properly in a certain model and a certain version of an image forming apparatus might not work properly in a different model and a different version of an image forming apparatus. Such a situation should be avoided because frequent occurrence of such a situation erodes trust in products.